Parliamentary Service New Zealand and Mai-Wel Group choose BlackBerry Software

The customer wins for BlackBerry software continue to grow as the company has now announced Parliamentary Service New Zealand and Australian healthcare organization, Mai-Wel Group, are among the latest organizations to deploy WatchDox and other cross-platform BlackBerry software solutions.

This news comes hot on the heels of a recent study from Australian research firm, Telsyte, which reveals a growing concern about the security of personal cloud storage services, and ranks BlackBerry as the leading MDM vendor in Australia and New Zealand. Paul Crighton, Vice-President for BlackBerry in Asia Pacific says that the new study and customer wins in government and healthcare underline the continued adoption of BlackBerry enterprise software.

Our customers increasingly want to improve workplace collaboration within a secure mobile environment, which is a huge challenge for them. With security at our core, world-class support and cross-platform capabilities, this is how BlackBerry is helping our customers to achieve truly secure mobile working, which is why we are seeing such great momentum in our enterprise software business.

Parliamentary Service New Zealand and Mai-Wel Group choose BlackBerry Software, as Telsyte study finds growing concern of personal clouds

New research from Telsyte shows BlackBerry is the leading MDM vendor in Australia and New Zealand; and reveals two in three businesses in Australia are concerned about employees storing company data on personal clouds

October 18, 2016 – Sydney, Australia – BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB), a global software leader in securing, connecting and mobilizing enterprises has announced that government customer, Parliamentary Service New Zealand and Australian healthcare organization, Mai-Wel Group, are among the latest organizations to deploy WatchDox and other cross-platform BlackBerry software solutions. The news comes as Australian research firm, Telsyte, released a new study that reveals a growing concern about the security of personal cloud storage services, and ranks BlackBerry as the leading MDM (enterprise mobile device and application management) vendor in Australia and New Zealand.

Following recent customer announcements in the logistics, education, legal and insurance sectors, Paul Crighton, Vice-President for BlackBerry in Asia Pacific says that the new study and customer wins in government and healthcare underline the continued adoption of BlackBerry enterprise software. Paul says, "Our customers increasingly want to improve workplace collaboration within a secure mobile environment, which is a huge challenge for them. With security at our core, world-class support and cross-platform capabilities, this is how BlackBerry is helping our customers to achieve truly secure mobile working, which is why we are seeing such great momentum in our enterprise software business."

Telsyte's 2017 Australian Enterprise Mobility Market Study

The new research was released today as part of Telsyte's 2017 Australian Enterprise Mobility Market Study, which explores a range of issues that impact mobile working. Notable findings include:

62 per cent of Australian businesses are worried about risks associated with employees storing sensitive information on cloud storage services.

75 per cent of companies are moving, or planning to move, to an enterprise-grade file sharing service.

25 per cent of businesses still do not have any plans or measures to manage this.

Foad Fadaghi, Managing Director, Telsyte says a number of high-profile security breaches to personal cloud services are behind the increasing level of concern. "The use of personal cloud storage services has been pretty low on the security radar during the past few years, however, recent high-profile breaches have amplified this as a potential problem," Foad says. "Our research shows many companies will be reviewing the use of personal cloud services in the coming year, in the same way they were forced to address potential risks associated with personal email services a few years ago."

Paul Crighton says the new data shows businesses need to ensure file-sharing systems are secured, rather than doing away with them completely. Paul says, "It makes more sense to increase protection at the document level rather than trying to change the storage platform – whether that's in the cloud, on a device or within a network. That way you can still provide a high level of protection, but in a user-friendly way that will maximise workflows. We are pleased to announce today that Parliamentary Service New Zealand is doing this with WatchDox, our enterprise-grade, secure file-sharing solution."

The leading MDM vendors in Australia, according to Telsyte research, are BlackBerry (following the acquisition and integration of Good Technology), IBM and Samsung in that order. Telsyte says the growth in MDM is being driven by a high rate (86 per cent) of enterprises still concerned about the security of enterprise mobility.

Parliamentary Service, New Zealand Parliament

The New Zealand Parliamentary Service (the Service) provides administrative and support services to its Parliament and is the largest of the agencies housed in the parliamentary precinct, employing approximately 460 staff and 260 out-of-Parliament staff throughout the country. With a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policy that supports a range of iOS and Android devices, the Service wanted a solution that would enable staff to do more on the move, but it needed to adhere to the highest levels of security.

Michael Middlemiss, Chief Information Officer for New Zealand Parliamentary Service says, "The sensitive nature of government work means there is a growing need to securely share documents while retaining control of them across Parliament. WatchDox by BlackBerry helped us to solve this issue, as it enables members and staff to securely share DRM-protected documents, while retaining complete control of the content. We believe WatchDox is a valuable contributor to our data loss prevention strategy and from a security point of view, this gives us peace of mind but importantly, allows our team to be super productive."

Michael adds, "Members of the New Zealand Parliament and their support staff require secure access to their emails and calendar at all times, as well as sharing sensitive files in a secure mobile environment. With such a range of devices used by our staff, we required an enterprise mobility solution that was easy to deploy and maintain and not impact how staff use their devices. Using Good Work, members and staff like the ability to access delegate calendars to keep their busy schedules synchronised when on the move."

Mai-Wel Group

The Mai-Wel Group is a not-for-profit organization, providing a range of services to people in the community with a disability. Employing over 200 local staff, employees visit participants on a regular basis, providing them with the opportunity to participate in working life and independent living, skills development and lifestyle and leisure activities.

To ensure they meet the organisation's funding and reporting requirements, Mai-Wel employees need to update information in the company's web app after each visit or meeting. The introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) earlier this year required Mai-Wel to provide real-time reporting when visiting participants, instead of at the end of the day. The organization therefore needed a solution that provided employees greater flexibility, without compromising security.

Eddie Meehan, Mai-Wel's Manager of Information and Communications Services, says, "Our aim is always to support the largest number of participants possible with our services. For this we needed to be able to access our web app securely from any device, so that employees can log their time after each visit on the move, instead of returning to the office. BlackBerry's Good Secure Collaboration Suite from the Good Dynamics Platform will allow us to log our data efficiently and accurately in a secure environment, increasing our productivity and number of visits. This is essential for our business to continue to support the community."

Reader comments

Parliamentary Service New Zealand and Mai-Wel Group choose BlackBerry Software

Don't get too excited. We've been on the bottom rung of the ladder as far as BlackBerry is concerned for too many years now.

The lack of marketing and vendor support here in Australia has been absolutely pathetic. So much so that the only BlackBerry that we can currently access here is the Priv and that's locked into an overpriced Optus plan.

However I still love BlackBerry and its focus on security, so like you I do hope their presence grows here and we can access their devices more readily :-)

Please I'm Using BlackBerry Z10 and they keep on prompting me that by 31 December 2016 my phone will no longer support What's app please tell me how serious is this situation, and what are the BlackBerry software Team going to do about dis situation

Well, if software makes Cash they can keep burning it in hardware a la microsoft, but i do want a phisical keyboard, bb10 or whatever they put in, hopefully mercury Will be a flagship like the Q10 was at its momment, on topic, blackberry is growing again for what made the company famous in the first place, its software, hopefully they keep growing, My dream is blackberry being a heavy competitor of IBM and company, they cant be profitable on hardware, people is never going to end eating the overpriced **** that Samsung and Apple throws to them, if the people that buys these phones were actually tech readers and seasoned users like us, brands like LG, "current" BlackBerry and even Sony would be the kings of the hill these days